


There's Nothing Like Another Soul That's Been Cut Up the Same

by zaftig_darling



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Fanfiction of Fanfiction, M/M, Unsafe Sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-11
Updated: 2016-05-16
Packaged: 2018-06-07 17:18:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6816199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zaftig_darling/pseuds/zaftig_darling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by  <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/6126172/chapters/1403980">Something Like This</a>  by   <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/users/emmagrant01/pseuds/emmagrant01">EmmaGrant01</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Pages Plead Forgiveness, Every Word Handwritten

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Something Like This](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6126172) by [emmagrant01](https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmagrant01/pseuds/emmagrant01). 



> If you haven't read EmmaGrant01's Something Like This, this won't make any sense. 
> 
> This is a fanfic of a fanfic, and I desperately hope Emma is not offended. (I will take this down if she hates it.) These are my thoughts on what happened between Dani and Whits, and takes place in the middle of Chapter 18, between the time that Whits takes a phone call in the bathroom, and when he sneaks back into the hotel room. The text of a brief conversation between Whits and Jack is quoted directly from Chapter 18. 
> 
> This was intended to just be shamelessly smutty outtake, but the characters wanted to talk first. I have no control over them, they aren't even mine. 
> 
> This has not been beta read. If you see any glaring errors, kindly let me know.
> 
> This is written as a tribute only and no copyright infringement is intended. Check, Please belongs to Ngozi - many thanks to her for letting us play in her sandbox. The other characters in SLT belong to EmmaGrant01.

Whits glances at Jack sheepishly when his cell phone rings, lighting up with a photo of Dani from their junior year at Michigan - a close-up of Dani’s face grinning widely, a smile just for him. 

He ducks into the bathroom to take the call - he doesn’t want be overheard talking to the man who assaulted Jack on the ice less than two hours ago. 

“Dani?” he answers, after the door is closed and he’s reasonably certain he can’t be heard.

“ _Hej_ ,” Dani’s voice is soft on the other end of the line. “I…can you come out and have a drink with me?”

Whits is quiet for a few seconds, his emotions swirling. “You just took down my roommate on national television. Why would I have a drink with you?” he answers, sounding more confident in his anger than he actually feels.

“Is that all he is?” Dani asks, sharply. “Just your _roommate_?”

“That’s what you want to say to me right now?” Whits asks, incredulous. 

There is a strange rustling on the other end of the line, and then Dani’s tone changes. “Taylor, please. I need…I need to see you. Please.” Dani’s voice is cracking very slightly, and his accent, normally almost imperceptible, is more pronounced. 

“I have curfew,” he protests feebly. 

“There’s a bar just around the corner from your hotel. It’s quiet, dark. You can be back by curfew. Please? I just need to see you for a few minutes. _Snälla_?” 

He bites his lip as he thinks, frustrated that even now he can’t say no to Dani - he has never been able to say no to Dani. “Okay,” he breathes, hardly audible. “What’s the name of the place?” He swears he can almost hear Dani relax through the phone as he gives him directions. 

He tells him he will meet him there in ten minutes and walks out of the bathroom. 

Jack stares at him with a worried look on his face. 

“I’m gonna go out,” he says. 

Jack seems surprised. “Seriously?” 

“I need to talk to him. To Dani. We’re gonna meet for a drink.” 

“Oh. Right.” Jack nods as if this makes perfect sense to him, which is surprising considering how strange he’s been acting since New Year’s. “Text me if you need anything, okay?” Jack adds. 

“I’m sorry he was such an asshole tonight. He’s not… I mean…”

Jack assures him he doesn’t have to explain as Whits pockets his wallet and his key to the room. 

“Thanks, man,” he says, and he means it. 

All the way down to the lobby in the elevator, and during his short walk to the pub around the corner, Whits ponders what to say to the only person he’s ever really been in love with. What words are appropriate when the love of your life smashes your best friend’s face into the ice?

His phone vibrates with a new text notification. “ _booth at the back, on the right_.” 

It’s quiet in the bar, and there’s no hostess, thank God. He can see the back of Dani’s head in the last booth, and he makes his way there quickly, sliding in across from him in the narrow booth, and he just looks into eyes, saying nothing, waiting to hear what his ex has to say for himself.

Under the table, Whits feels Dani slot his right foot between Whits’ shoes, and a hand comes to rest on his left knee. Whits is reminded of hundreds of other occasions, hundreds of nights – on the road or in Ann Arbor, hundreds of other times when they slid their feet together because they couldn’t slide their hands together in public. It makes him nostalgic and sad and full of longing for the man sitting across from him. 

Dani clasps his knee gently. “I’m sorry,” he says, and nothing more. 

Whits raises his eyebrows, but doesn’t push away the fingers now gently tracing figure eights around his knee cap. “What for?” he asks. “Sorry that you started a fight with my best friend? Sorry that you embarrassed yourself in front of my team? Sorry that you cheated on me?” This last question is hissed so quietly he’s not sure Dani actually hears him.

At that moment, the waitress stops at their table to ask what she can bring them, and they both say, nearly in unison, “Labatt Blue, please.” 

Dani quirks his mouth into a half smile. “Some things don’t change.” He doesn’t speak again until the waitress returns with two bottles and two glasses, but he doesn’t break eye contact and he doesn’t stop caressing Whits’ knee. Arousal begins to thrum through him, almost against his will. Dani is beautiful to look at and he has years of experience knowing how to rev Whits’ particular engines. 

Whits finally drags his gaze away and pours the drinks into the glasses, for something to shift his attention from Dani’s intense stare if nothing else. 

“I’m sorry about what happened on the ice tonight, I am,” Dani begins. “I’m sorry I started that fight. I was so stupid and so…so jealous. I thought…everyone’s heard the rumors about Kent Parson and Zimmermann in juniors, so I assumed... I thought you were fucking him. And I was jealous. I AM jealous. Are you?” 

“Am I what?” Whits asks, purposefully obtuse. 

Dani huffs in frustration. “Are you fucking Jack Zimmermann? Are you…together?” 

“Jack is my friend. But I’m not fucking him and we’re not together. I’m not with anyone right now. I’m just…fucking around with assholes on Grindr. ” 

Dani purses his lips together at that, and picks up his glass and drains half of it. “I’m an idiot. And an asshole. And I miss you. I miss you so fucking much, Taylor.” Under the table he slides his hand from Whits’ knee up his thigh. 

“You cheated on me,” Whits reminds him, quietly. “You said, and I think I’m quoting here, ‘there’s lots of hot guys who are actually in Denver.’”

Dani blushes and has the sense to look ashamed. “I didn’t mean that. And I was drunk and stupid and lonely and missing you and angry about it. I’m sorry. So sorry.” 

“It was hard for me, too, but I didn’t cheat. I thought about it a few times, but I never did. Not once,” Whits says.

“You can’t know how much I regret that,” Dani says. “It was hard, being away from you. Everything was so different, all of the sudden. In Ann Arbor, on the road, we were always together – we played together, we ate together, we roomed together, we were in each others’ pockets all the time. I was so used to having you right next to me, I didn’t know how to be me without you. And so I was stupid and I drank too much and I cheated, I did. And if I could go back in time and undo that, I would. But I can’t. I can’t undo it, and I can’t take it back, but I can tell you…I can tell you that I miss you and I…”

He breaks off and looks away and Whits can see that he is blinking quickly and staring into his beer. Because he knows Dani, really, truly knows Dani, he can tell he’s trying not to cry and mostly winning that battle.

Dani takes a deep breath, and glances around. It’s late and they are the only people at this end of the bar, and the waitress is leaning against a bar stool, flirting with the bartender. With the hand that isn’t under the table caressing Whits’ leg, he grabs Whits’ hand and squeezes. 

“ _Älskling_ ,” he whispers, “please come back to me. I miss you. So much. I miss you every day and I’m going crazy without you.” 

“What happens when you miss me and I’m in Providence and you’re here? Or I’m on a roadie in Detroit and you’re in Vancouver? Or I’m home in Dallas and you’ve gone back to Gothenburg?” 

Dani swallows. “I will miss you. And I will keep missing you and I will fall asleep alone, if that’s what you want from me, because I want to be with you more than I don’t want to feel lonely sometimes.”

 

“I don’t know if I’m ready to forgive you,” he says, but he doesn’t let go of Dani’s hand, and he doesn’t push his hand off of his leg under the table.

Dani leans forward so he murmur into Whits’ ear. “Come back to my apartment, just for a few hours, eh? You don’t have to forgive me. Just let me make you feel good.” With that, beneath the table his hand slides the rest of the way up his thigh and cups his growing erection. “You want to say yes, _käraste_ , I know you do. Come with me.” 

He swallows the rest of his beer and decides to give into what both his heart and body want. He leans back. “Okay,” he says. “I don’t know what this means for us, but…I miss you. Every day.” 

Dani stands up, looking relieved, and says, “my car’s around the corner.” Whits furtively adjusts himself in his jeans before following Dani out of the bar and into the cold night.


	2. I'm in Love With the Way You're In Love With the Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happened after they left the bar

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This scene did not originally exist in my first draft of this story. I added it in to match the information in Chapter 19 of Something Like This. 
> 
> A caveat - this is smut, and it contains some practices that are not safe between partners who are not in a committed, monogamous relationship. This is a work of fiction, and the story went where my muse wanted it to go. I edited it a bit because it was originally so unsafe that it felt irresponsible. But, in the real world, please, safety first. 
> 
> This has not been beta read - if you see any glaring errors, please let me know.
> 
> This is written as a tribute only and no copyright infringement is intended. Check, Please belongs to Ngozi - many thanks to her for letting us play in her sandbox. The other characters in SLT belong to EmmaGrant01.

Whits follows Dani to a red Volvo parked down a quiet street a few blocks from the pub. His heart is racing and his cock is aching and he can’t decide if this is the worst or the best idea he’s had in a long time.

  
He tries to tell himself that this could mean nothing more than any other random hook-up. He doesn’t believe the lies he tells himself.

The quiet beep of the lock of the car interrupts his racing thoughts. He slides into the passenger side of the sleek SUV and is immediately surrounded by the scent of Dani – the cologne he favors, his shampoo, his citrusy shaving balm, and underneath just the distinct smell of the man he spent years of his life wrapped around. It smells like coming home.

He hates himself a little bit for being so easily swayed into doing exactly what he told himself he wasn’t going to do.  As Dani sits in the driver seat Whits grabs the front of his coat and pulls their faces together, kissing him sloppily, suddenly hungry for him in a way that makes him feel frantic.

Dani returns the kiss enthusiastically, slipping his fingers into Whits’ long hair, holding his head still as their mouths smash together. Dani pulls his face away long enough to groan, “God I missed you.” Whits doesn’t respond, he just keeps kissing him, his mouth, his neck, the space behind his earlobe.

He pulls Dani’s coat open and burrows his face into the open collar of his button down, anxious to touch more of him. It’s been so long - even though he’s satisfactorily scratched relevant itches with his recent hook-ups, he hasn’t felt this heady intoxication of lust and affection since the last time he was with Dani.

Maneuvering awkwardly around the center console of the Volvo, he slips his hands down Dani’s body, swiftly finding the fly of jeans. Dani is hard and throbbing under Whits’ palm, and he lets out a quiet moan as Whits gets his pants open and pushes his boxers down far enough to free him. Whits bends down and takes Dani into his mouth, his tongue lapping at the head that is beginning to peek out of its foreskin.

Dani draws in a loud breath through his nose as his head snaps backward, hitting the headrest hard. He murmurs something in Swedish that Whits that doesn’t understand, and he begins to run his fingers through Whits’ hair, pulling on it just enough to hurt a little, exactly the way Whits’ likes.

He loves this - he absolutely loves the heady, yearning power of having Dani’s cock in his mouth. He has always loved to give head, ever since his first furtive, fumbling encounter, but it’s not something he can explain precisely to his recent partners. “I know we just met, and I tower over you like a giant, but I want to swallow your dick and have you carefully pull my hair until I come in my pants” has not been something he’s admitted to casual companions.

Above him, Dani is reduced to babbling nonsense that Whits is pretty sure means nothing in any language. Dani knows him, knows what turns him on, and he especially knows the rules of this particular encounter – Whits is not going to let him come until Whits wants him to come.

Whits pulls back a bit so he look up at Dani’s face as he sticks his tongue out and carefully, slowly licks the tip.

  
Dani moans and pulls his right hand out of Whits’ hair and twists awkwardly, shoving his hand between Whit’s legs, cupping his crotch, and Whits begins to rut against him. He continues to tease Dani with gentle licks, the taste of Dani in his mouth is both familiar and very slightly worrisome.

“Have you been safe?” he asks quietly, his tongue still hovering, driving Dani to the edge with tiny strokes. “With, uh…other guys? Or girls?”

Dani’s eyes are unfocused as he stares down at Whits, and for a second he thinks Dani hasn’t understood the question. “ _Ja..ja…_ yes,” he stutters out. “Very, very safe. Do you want…there’s Trojans in the glove box? But I haven’t been with anyone without them.”

Whits pauses for a moment, conflicted. He doesn’t, actually, want to grab the box of condoms, doesn’t want anything between them. He wants things to be the way they were in college, when they went together to the campus health center and had all their tests done. A few days later, upon receipt of their negative results, they had gleefully thrown the condoms behind the couch in their dorm room and fucked like monogamous monkeys on every available surface. They had continued to do so until their break-up last year.

But he knows that then is not now, and there are too many hard conversations ahead of them. He reluctantly reaches for the glove box – “Mint flavored, really?” - he smirks, and quickly has Dani back in his mouth. He sees a flicker of something like regret or sadness in Dani’s eyes, until he closes them and is lost once more in sensation. Dani resumes his soft pulls at Whits’ hair with his left hand and his insistent stroking of his dick with his right hand, until they are both teetering on the edge of orgasm.

“Tay,” Dani pants. “TayTayTay,” he says, and he makes a small, desperate, noise. Whits rubs against Dani’s hand more forcefully but pulls his mouth off and looks up at his ex-lover. “What do you need?” he teases.

“I need…please…I need,” Dani huffs.

Whits licks him again and grins, “Tell me all about it. Tell me what you need.”

“Please,” he begs. “Please I want to…please let…please…”

“Tell me what you need, baby,” Whits murmurs as he continues his relentless torment – touching Dani now only with the tip of his tongue and the lightest tracing of his index finger. He feels like he is absolutely on fire with pleasure and the exhilarating power of reducing Dani to a beseeching mess.

“Please, Tay, can I, can I, please?” Dani groans, frantic. Whits know this is a go-to kink for both of them, knows that Dani being made to ask Whits’ permission is a sure-fire winner in their vast erotic play book, and he aches with the knowledge that this intricate understanding has been sorely missing from his Grindr hook-ups.

He presses himself harder against Dani’s hand and softly whispers, “What do you need, Dani? Tell me.”

“Iwanttocomeinyourmouth, oh god, please,” Dani wheezes, practically incoherent with pleasure.

“Oh, well, when you put it that way…you can do that, come on, you can do that for me,” Whits says, swallowing him all the way down as Dani fills the condom with a low pitched whimper.

Dani twists around, grabbing Whits’ face and kissing him desperately, sliding his hand from the outside of his jeans to the inside, where he expertly strokes him until Whits comes against the warmth of Dani’s fingers pressed tightly into his boxer briefs.

Dani pulls his hand away, covered in ejaculate. He stares at it, his eyes still glassy with desire. “Have you been safe, too, _mitt hjärta_? Have you been safe with all the puck bunny boys you find on your phone?”

He has a strange, intense look on his face that might be jealousy, but might be something else. Curiosity, perhaps.  
Whits’ eyes grow wide with understanding and conflicted arousal. “I’m a safety guy,” he admits, nodding once.

“Every time?”

“Every time.”

Dani raises his hand to his lips and licks Whits’ orgasm from his fingers, slowly, deliberately. Whits wants to stop him, wants to tell him it’s not safe, nothing is 100% certain, that they aren’t monogamous and it’s foolish. But he also knows he had a clean bill of health from the team doctor ten days ago and he hasn’t been this turned on in a very long time. He stares at Dani hungrily, still licking his fingers, and his cock begins to grow hard again.

“I want to bend you over the backseat of this car, lick you until you are wide open and aching for it, and then fuck you until you won’t be able to walk,” Dani says, not looking away.

Whits is completely, totally and utterly in favor of this idea, however, he’s not interested in being arrested for indecent exposure if they are spotted.

He bends towards Dani and kisses him, turned on by the taste of himself in his mouth.

“Take me to your apartment and bend me over the sofa instead.”

Dani kisses him again, nods in agreement, and buckles his seat belt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ja = yes  
> Mitt hjärta = term of endearment, my heart

**Author's Note:**

> Whits is from Texas, but I can't imagine he spent four years dating a Swede without learning a few words.
> 
> Translations from Swedish  
> Hej - hi, hey  
> Snälla - please  
> Älskling - sweetheart, love  
> käraste - term of endearment, dearest, cherished
> 
> The reference to both of them preferring Labatt Blue is a reference to the fact that Ann Arbor, Michigan is less than an hour from the Canadian border crossing into Windsor, Ontario. The legal drinking age in the US is 21, but the legal drinking age in Ontario is 19. Although I went to school in that area some 20 years before these characters, suffice it to say that, at least when I was a college student, 19 and 20 year olds frequently took advantage of that easy border crossing to go to the bar. And some of us are fans of Canadian beer to this day. (Admittedly, we didn't need passports 20 years ago. And Whits and Dani may have had constrictions placed upon them by being members of an elite hockey team at a huge university. Either way, Labatt Blue is good beer, okay?)


End file.
